During oral and maxillofacial surgery, vascular injuries may occur upon neck dissection, oral cancer removal or reconstruction, maxillofacial trauma, or surgical removal of lesions that are close to major blood vessels. Possible treatments for vascular injury may include the ligation of damaged blood vessels or the direct closure of vascular defects. However, when larger vessels such as the carotid artery, which are often encountered upon neck dissection, are subjected to ligation, various complications, such as cerebral infarction and the like, are reported to take place at high frequency. Furthermore, in the case where a vascular wall with a severe injury is forcibly treated by direct closure, the diameter of the blood vessel is narrowed, undesirably causing cerebral infarction due to vascular occlusion or neurological complications due to deterioration of the vascular function. Therefore, there is a critical need to develop simple methods and materials for treating damaged blood vessels to maintain the functions thereof and regenerate the vascular defects.
A vascular patch has been utilized upon cardiovascular damage in order to decrease complications such as vascular occlusion caused by a reduction in the diameter of the blood vessel due to direct closure. Numerous results comparing treatment of vascular damage via direct closure and treatment of vascular damage using a vascular patch have been reported, and reports in which better results are exhibited upon treatment using a vascular patch are dominant.
However, conventional vascular patches made of synthetic polymers (PET, ePTFE) or Gore-Tex cause vascular blockage due to thrombosis and also calcification due to bio-incompatibility, making it impossible to perform vascular functions for a long period of time. Furthermore, they are non-degradable materials and have low biocompatibility, undesirably incurring inflammation or tissue necrosis. Moreover, such vascular patches are expensive, and are difficult to apply to relatively thin blood vessels in oral and maxillofacial areas because they are custom made for cardiovascular applications.
Hence, there is ongoing research into vascular patches, which are made of natural materials, are biocompatible, and may retain the morphology of blood vessels without vaso-occlusive crisis.
Related techniques include one introduced at a Symposium in 2003 by Korea Society for Biotechnology and Bioengineering (Development of vascular patch using mesenchymal stem cells and biocompatible matrix) and Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2013-0051602 (3D Silk fibroin fiber characterized in dermal substitution and method of preparation for the same).